But Twitter is still very active, and there are still a few developers willing to develop solutions that integrate as well as possible. Even the removal of Twitter counts wasn’t enough to stop creative developers from finding workarounds.

While it’s technically not a widget, I wanted to include Tweet to Unlock for WordPress.

Adding Twitter widgets is all about bridging engagement between your website and Twitter users—and that’s what this does.

Tweet to Unlock for WordPress does exactly what its name describes. You can place content (blog posts, download links, videos, etc.) behind a paywall of sorts. Users are required to share the link via Twitter to unlock it.

If you’re not interested in any of the extra flavor provided by premium WordPress Twitter plugins, you can always use the built-in Twitter widget included with Jetpack by WordPress.com—or the official Twitter widget.

If you’re already using Jetpack by WordPress.com and all you need is a bare-bones basic timeline, you might give it a try. Keep in mind that design modifications are very limited and you miss out on caching as well as other features included with premium options.

For those not using Jetpack, you can try the less bloated Twitter widget offered by Twitter.com. Again, this is a basic offering, but an option nonetheless.

Build Your Own WordPress Twitter Widget

Having surveyed the different options of WordPress Twitter widgets, I can say there is plenty of room for more plugins.

So why not build your own WordPress Twitter widget?

It may be the best solution for your own website—or maybe even selling and supporting it to other WordPress users. Twitter offers extensive resources for developers, providing plenty of documentation to get started.

There are some clear limitations within the Twitter API compared to what was available a few years ago, but there’s still plenty of room to construct some really great looking Twitter widgets that shine much brighter than the generic widgets offered by Twitter.

Conclusion

If you didn’t find the right WordPress Twitter widget in this roundup, there are many other WordPress Twitter plugins in the Envato Market.

I think the Twitter API change a few years ago really hurt the market for third-party apps—ranging from desktop apps to WordPress plugins—and we can still feel the impact today.

That being said, I think the current API is enough for developers to build and support great WordPress Twitter widget plugins.